Connecting and hinge means for photo frames



p 22, 1910 M. SPERTl JS 3,529,374

CONNECTING AND HINGE MEANS FOR PHOTOFRAMBS Filed Dec. 27, 1968 INVENTORMAURICE SPERTUS F166 BY a -w ATTORNEY United States Patent Int. Cl. G09f1/12 US. Cl. 40-452 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Photo framesmade of molding strips of metal or the like are formed with alignedslits or slots in the rear wall segment of parallelly adjoining sides.Connecting members of various types having enlarged end portions withintermediate connecting portions of reduced-diameter are fitted into theslits with the enlarged end portions bearing against the inner closedends of the slits. The connecting members are retained in position byother members of the framed photos and said connecting members serve tojoin together a plurality of framed photographs for hanging displaypurposes or serve as hinge connectors for two or more of said framedphotos.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to improvements inmeans for connecting a pluralty of framed photographs, one to the other,so that they may be readily hung or displayed in groups. It furtherrelates to embodiments of said connecting means which enables the sameto be used to connect said photo frames in hinged relationship, one tothe other.

It is well known that framed photographs and pictures are often-timesdisplayed or hung in various groups or arrangements on a wall or similarsurface. Sometimes they are hung or displayed in spaced vertical orhorizontal rows or groups. Similarly, said frames, pictures orphotographs may be hingedly connected together in pairs or largernumbers displayed in upright position on a horizontal surface, such as atable, shelf or mantelpiece.

Heretofore, in hanging or arranging framed pictures and photographs onvertical surfaces in groups, such as for example, vertical rows, it wasnecessary to hang each picture with separate hanging means for attachingthe same to the wall or vertical surface. In some instances they wereindividually mounted on boards and then the boards were hung on thewall; and in still further instances various makeshift means wereemployed to connect frames and photographs together.

For use in displaying photographs and pictures in upright positions onhorizontal surfaces, pairs, trios or other plural arrangements of photoframes were provided with hinges connecting each photo frame to itsadjoining mate so that by opening the hinges the framed photographscould be displayed at various angles with relation one to the other, asfor example, 30, 45 60, 90, etc. Obviously, the hinged photo frames werespecially constructed and sold as units, i.e., pairs, trios, etc.

Metal photo frames are usually made of channelshaped molding stripsmitered and bent or cut to afford frames of various shapes such as, forexample, rectangles. The connecting and hinging means of the subjectinvention comprises slits formed in the rear and side wall segments ofone or more of the molding strip sides, said slits opening to the innerends of said rear wall segments and extending inwardly usually to theside wall segment of the moulding strip. Connecting means of varioustypes, shapes and sizes, including for example, ball-chain means such asare sometimes used for making key chains or the like, are inserted intothe slits so that the end ball abuts the inner surface of the side wallsegment of the molding strip. The molding strip of the adjacent pictureis similarly formed with slots or slits, and the other end of theconnecting member as, for example, the ball-key chain, is insertedtherein. The slot is then closed by the marginal portions of the othermembers of the framed photograph as, for example, the backing member,the glass, etc., thereby retaining the connecting means in position. Twoor more of such connecting means enables a plurality of framed picturesor photographs to be connected together in either hanging relationshipor in hinged relationship.

It is therefore an important object of this invention to provide metalpicture or photo frames having means incorporated therein for readilyconnecting a plurality of said frames together in hanging relationshipor in hinged relationship.

Another object of this invention is to afford connecting means which maybe readily incorporated into conventional photo frames of existingdesign for connecting two or more of said frames together in hanging orhinged relationship.

Yet a further object is to provide connecting means for photo frames forjoining the same together in flexible relationship.

Yet another object is to afford means for inflexibly connecting two ormore photo frames together.

Still a further object is to provide connecting means for photo frameswhich will permit two adjacent connected photo frames to be positionedupright in planes of various angles one with the other.

Finally, a further object is to provide photo frames with connectingmeans which are simple, inexpensive, may be incorporated intoconventional photo frames and may be utilized or not, as desired.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention consists of certain novel featuresof construction, arrangement and a combination of parts hereinafterfully described, illstrated in the accomanpying drawings andparticularly pointed out in the appended claims; it being understoodthat various changes in the form, proportions, size and minor details ofthe structure may be made without departing from the spirit orsacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For the purpose of facilitating anunderstanding of my invention, I have illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings a preferred embodiment thereof from an inspection of which,when considered in connection with the following description, myinvention, its mode of construction, assembly and operation and many ofits advantages should be readily understood and appreciated.

Referring to the drawings, in which the same characters of reference areemployed to indicate corresponding or similar parts throughout theseveral figures of the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a pair of photo frames havingincorporated therein connecting means comprising the subject matter ofthis invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a pair of photo frames in uprightposition connected together by means comprising the subject matter ofthis invention wherein the same serve as hinges connecting the twoframes together;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary rear elevational view of the photoframes illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawings with a portion broken awayto facilitate illustration of the construction and assembly of the same;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view taken on the plane of line 4-4 inFIG. 3 of the drawings and viewed in the direction indicated;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the plane ofline 55 in FIG. 3 of the drawings and viewed in the direction indicated;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 but showing another embodiment of theconnecting means; and

FIGS. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are perspective views of various forms ofconnectors which may be used as a part of the connecting means.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the several figuresof the drawings, reference numeral 12 indicates generally a pair ofpicture or photo frames made of metal channel-shaped molding strips 14miter cut and bent to afford a rectangular-shape frame such as shown inFIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings. Thus, each of the frames comprise a topmember 16, a pair of side members 18 and 20, and a bottom member 22.

The cross-sectional shape of the molding strips may vary but generallyinclude a front inclined segment 24 (see FIGS. 5 and 6 of the drawings),a straight side segment 26 integrally formed with segment 24, and allexcept one member (usually the bottom member 22) have an integrallyformed rear segment 28 positioned in a plane at right angles to the sidesegment 26. The bottom member, or the member without the rear segment,is provided to facilitate insertion and assembly of the photo or pictureand the other members comprising the assembled framed photo or picture.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 of the drawings, the foregoing members of theassembled framed picture may comprise a pane of glass 30, the photo orpicture itself 32, a filler or photo-backing member such as 24, and therear beasel or final backing member 3'6. The member 36 usually has aneasel (not shown) hingedly connected thereto for enabling the singlepicture frame to be supported in upright position on a flat, horizontalsurface.

The picture or photo frame described hereinabove to this point comprisesthe usual well-known metal photo frame which ordinarily is sold and usedindividually. However, the same may be readily converted to incorporatetherein connecting means enabling two or more of said frames to beconnected together in flexible or inflexible, hanging relationship, asshown in FIGS. 1 and 3 ofthe drawings, or in hinged relationship, asshown in FIG. 2 of the drawings. For this purpose, the rear segment 28and/or the side segments 26 of the molding strips comprising certainsides or members of the photo frame are formed with slots or slits 38,as shown in the various figures of the drawings. The slots 38 of therear segments 28 and the side segments 26 are aligned, as shown in FIGS.3, 5 and 6 of the drawings. When the slots are positioned in the memberwhich has no rear segment 28, said slots are made only in the sidesegments 26.

The aforesaid slots 38 are adapted to receive therein connecting membersindicated generally by reference numeral 40, which may be of varioustypes and shapes such as shown, for example, in FIGS. 7 through 10,inclusive. Any suitable connector may be used so long as it has enlargedend portions connected together by reduceddiameter portions. Forexample, the connector 40 of FIG. 7 may comprise a ball-chain typecomprising balls 42 linked together by short lengths of wire 44 toafford a flexible connecting means. Chains of the proper length areselected and inserted into the slots 38 at the reduceddiarneter portionswhich comprise the wires 44. The end balls 42 of the chain connectorsare larger in diameter than the width of the slot 38, hence bear againstthe inner surfaces of the adjacent molding strip segment and areretained in position thereby. To insure that they are retained and donot fall out of the slots the marginal edges of the framed photoassembly, such as, for example, the beasel or backing member 36, thefiller member 34, and the photo 30, bear against the balls 42 and retainthe same within the slot preventing their ready removal therefrom.

In FIGS. 1 and 3 of the drawings it will be noted that the connectingchain is of a sufficient length to afford a flexible connection such asfor hanging purposes. In FIG. 2 of the drawings the length of theconnector is limited so that only one ball is positioned between the twoadjacent picture frames. This makes the connection less flexible and ineffect provides a hinge-type connecting means.

In FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 of the drawings other forms of connectors are shownwhich are primarily of the inflexible type. Thus, for example, in FIG. 8of the drawings the connector 40a comprises two balls 42a immovablyconnected by a stiff wire member 44a.

In FIG. 9 of the drawings an inflexible connector member gflb is shownwhich is generally of I-shape and include short end legs 46 connected bya central web 48.

Finally, in FIG. 10 of the drawings, still another embodiment 400 isillustrated. In this embodiment the connector is channel-shaped with endleg members 50 integrally formed with a side web member 52 connectingthe end members.

It should be obvious that when framed photographs or pictures areconnected together with the connecting means described hereinabove, onlyone hanging or mounting member (hook, nail or the like) associated withthe top frame is necessary to hang a whole assembly or plurality ofconnected frames on a wall or the like.

From the above description and drawings it should be apparent that Ihave provided a simple, inexpensive but effective means for connecting aplurality of photo frames together for purposes of either hangingdisplay on vertical walls or surfaces or upright display on horizontalsurfaces. The means may readily be incorporated into conventionalstandard photo frames of a type now available and popular.

It is believed that my invention, its mode of construction and assembly,and many of its advantages, should be readily understood from theforegoing without further description, and it should also be manifestthat while preferred embodiments of the invention have been shown anddescribed for illustrative purposes, the structural details arenevertheless capable of wide variation within the purview of myinvention as defined in the appended claims.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United Statesis:

1. A photo frame of the character described comprising at least onestrip of substantially channel-shaped molding material miter cut andbent to form an enclosure having a plurality of sides;

a plurality of members including a photograph or picture adapted to fitwithin said enclosure with at least some of the marginal edges of saidmember positioned in the channels of said molding strip;

at least one of said sides having slots formed therein;

and

connecting means associated with said slots for joining together aplurality of said photo frames.

2. The photo frame of claim 1 in which some of said sides have aninclined front segment, an integrally formed side segment and anintegrally formed rear segment;

at least one of said sides has said slots formed transversely in saidside segment and aligned slots formed in said rear segment.

3. The photo frame of claim 2 in which at least one of said sides isformed without a rear segment.

4. The photo frame of claim 1 in which said connecting means comprisesmembers having intermediate sections of a cross-sectional dimensionenabling the same to readily be inserted in said slots; and end sectionso shaped or sized as to insure the retention of said end segmentswithin said slots.

5. The photo frame of claim 4 wherein the marginal edges of some of saidmembers bear against the end sections of said'connecting means to retainthe same within said slots.

6. The photo frame of claim 5 wherein said connecting means comprises aplurality of balls connected one to the other by short lengths of wire.

7. The photo frame of claim 5 wherein said connecting means comprises anI-shape member having a pair of end legs integrally formed with acentral web.

8. The photo frame of claim 5 wherein said connecting means comprises amember of substantially channelshaped cross-section.

9. The photo frame of claim 5 wherein said slots are formed in theadjacent upright sides of said frames and said connecting means serve ashinges enabling said photo frames to be displayed in upright position ona horizontal surface.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 715,376 12/1902 Harper 401523,132,432 5/1964 Yee 40--152.1 3,460,282 8/1969 Swirsky 40--1523,471,959 10/1969 Seger 40-452 EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner W. J.CONTRERAS, Assistant Examiner

